Third Floor Common Room [Tuesday afternoon]

[likes_ducklings]

Rapunzel had spent so much time in her tower doing certain activities that she almost didn't want to do some of them anymore, instead just picking and choosing her favorites -- the things she'd do even if she wasn't incredibly bored and lonely

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[notaweenie]

Barry was on his way back out to the docks to do some work on the sub when he noticed Rapunzel in the common room.

"Oh! Hey Rapunzel," Barry said changing course. "I finally got something working for you."

He rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a pink baseball cap with a Fandom High logo.

"Ready to give this fucker a spin?"

[likes_ducklings]

"Yes!" Rapunzel almost spilled puzzle pieces everywhere in her excitement. She made actual grabby hands at the hat before remembering her manners. "I mean...if it's ready."

He wouldn't be offering if it wasn't, Rapunzel.

[notaweenie]

Barry laughed and tossed the hat at her. "Oh, it's ready. I've finished testing and your hair is absolutely safe," he said as he flopped on the couch. "But if you start hearing munching sounds take it off immediately."

His tone clearly indicates he's joking.

[likes_ducklings]

"No going in this hat unless you want to go to another dimension," she told Pascal seriously. He, for his part, looked about as nervous as a chameleon could at that prospect. Rapunzel carefully began feeding her hair into the hat, watching as it disappeared. "Barry, I can go anywhere with this! Thank you!"

[poison_princess]

After a long weekend back in Sterling where she'd once again failed to convince her mother to let her come back, Evie was back in Fandom. And while she could go back to hiding from everyone and desperately living through her phone and texting Melissa, it wasn't helping her feel less lonely or bored.

And so, reasoning that she couldn't literally be the only sane person in this school, she wandered into a common room to see if there was anyone even sort of normal she could talk to.

Tripping over--was that a rolled up rug?--something on her way in was not the way she'd hoped to make an entrance, but at least it gave her an easy in to the conversation.

"Is this one of yours?" she asked, holding up a puzzle piece that she'd found with her knee.

[likes_ducklings]

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" It was, indeed, her puzzle piece, but Rapunzel was much more worried that the girl had gotten hurt than about puzzle completion, just now.

[poison_princess]

"I'm okay," Evie said, trying to smile. "Normally not that clumsy, I just tripped over something."

Something like, oh, maybe Rapunzel's hair that Evie was now noticing? All yards and yards of it?

Excuse Evie for a second while she stared. "Holy crap," she breathed. "That can't be real."

[likes_ducklings]

"It is," Rapunzel said, apologetically. "Sorry, I probably should've, um, wound it up better. I forget that not everyone knows to just watch for it."

Yet another thing she was still adjusting to -- being aware of other people and the possibility of hair-tripping.

[doesnotkneel]

The weekend had been odd. Very odd. So strange, in fact, that Edward had insisted on ignoring any of it after limping away from Anders at some point... he didn't know when.

"Rapunzel!" he called ebulliently - that was the repression talking. "What's going on here, then?"

[likes_ducklings]

"It's a puzzle!" Rapunzel explained helpfully, because she was very literal and also he might legitimately not know about puzzles! She wouldn't be shocked. "Wanna help?"

[doesnotkneel]

"A puzzle," Edward echoed, squatting down by her side. "That'd depend. Are you in distress?"

[likes_ducklings]

"Nope, it's just for fun!" See? She had guessed right. "These pieces all fit together, see? If we put them together the right way, they'll make a picture -- but the trick is finding the right piece to go in each spot."

It was the kind of detail-oriented, tedious task that Rapunzel loved, honestly.

[not_every_mage]

"You do jigsaws?" Anders -- who would let Rapunzel cover the entire room if asked -- asked idly as he stopped into get a snack. "What's that one of?"

[likes_ducklings]

"It's a garden," Rapunzel said, brandishing the box at him so he could see the picture. "I haven't done one of these since I left my tower, but I found this one today and, y'know. I hear if you find a puzzle and don't complete it in the same day it's bad luck."

She nodded solemnly, even though that was something she had literally just made up right then.

[not_every_mage]

"Really?" Anders asked, plopping on the floor cross-legged beside her. "Even if it's the thousand-piece kind? Or one of the tricky ones that has a picture on the back, too?"

[likes_ducklings]

"Then you just have to have help," Rapunzel declared. Not that she'd ever gotten help, aside from Pascal, before today but still. "Which is good because people here are really social and like to do stuff together, and this thing's gonna be done way faster than any of the ones I did at home."

She didn't mind. At all.